> I'm doubtful about any good solution for having computers decide whether we are sufficiently human.

Two questions: - Couldn't a computer just temporarily hire a human to prove there is a human involved? - Why are we using recaptcha or verifying humanity anyway? I understand stopping spam, scams, and fraud, but scraping already public data doesn't present significant harm.

Yeah, it shouldn't be used to limit public data. The main use is to prevent spammers from spamming fora or registering thousands of throwaway email addresses.